


it all falls down

by codedredalert



Category: One Piece
Genre: Break Up, Established Relationship, Insecurity, M/M, Tarot, Unhealthy Relationships, from casual devil fruit use, mild body horror, offscreen mutual violence is sexy in this relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 17:34:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30042273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/codedredalert/pseuds/codedredalert
Summary: The sun streams in from the small porthole over scores of unlit candles, theGrudge Dorfrocks gently, his lover lays beside him and sleepily plays with his hair. Nothing here is cause for Basil Hawkins to be stricken with profound fear.And yet.(Inevitably, Law and Hawkins break up.)
Relationships: Basil Hawkins/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	it all falls down

**Author's Note:**

> Un-beta'd.

The sun streams in from the small porthole over scores of unlit candles, the _Grudge Dorf_ rocks gently, his lover lays beside him and sleepily plays with his hair. Nothing here is cause for Basil Hawkins to be stricken with profound fear. 

And yet. 

His heart beats so loudly in his chest he wonders how Law has not heard it yet, how the entirety of his ship has not heard it, but Law just stays pressed against his side, occasionally shivering, fingers twirling absently through golden locks. 

He had appeared last night with the storm and a flash of blue lightning, raging and all too ready to tear into Hawkins' ship, crew, and Hawkins himself. After the last marine skirmish, Hawkins had been suppressing plenty of rage as well, and Law had been a perfect target for his anger— and an appropriate one even. There shouldn't have been that much marine presence, there was no reason for their location to be suspected unless someone had tipped off the marines, and the only one to benefit would have been the _Polar Tang_ , hiding under the waves to slip past unscathed. After fighting his way out and having two crewmates to bury at sea, Hawkins had not been in the mood to carry out Law's capricious, unsubstantiated "plans".

They didn't argue about it. They just clashed— devil fruit powers and blades, hand to hand and hand against wrist and throat; teeth and nails and hair-pulling, threats and curses and swearing— tearing into each other with wild abandon, leaving blood and bruises and a strangely satisfying ache that meant the conflict had worn itself out for the time being, for now. 

In the morning light, the storm seems so far away, but Hawkins has been at sea long enough to know another storm will come, eventually. 

"'M cold," Law complains, pressing his freezing fingers to Hawkins stomach as proof and laughing at Hawkins' flinch. His lip is split and swollen from Hawkins' teeth, and other cuts and bruises are beginning to show on his dark skin. Hawkins has no doubt his own skin bears marks of Law's violence as well, and he knows he does not wear those marks half as beautifully. 

"I'll light the candles," Hawkins says and he shifts to get up but the arm thrown over Hawkins' waist possessively does not let go. Law curls in, and Hawkins feels the brush of lips to his skin, Law's warm breath. 

"Who said I'd let you go?" Law says, obviously with selfish motives but the words still spark a thrill of delight, of warmth. Hawkins brushes a hand over Law's hair, his shoulder. 

"You have to let me up if I am to light the candles," Hawkins explains. 

"Fuck that." 

"You already did." 

Law bursts into a snicker he could feel against his side. _I did_ , he mouthed triumphantly against Hawkins' skin and equal parts desire and dread wash through Hawkins, from his chest to his fingertips. 

"Let me up," Hawkins says at length, when Law shows no sign of letting go. Law shifts to look up at him. 

"Use your devil fruit," Law demands. Law uses his powers as easily as he lifts a finger, as easily as he breathes. He rejoices when others run screaming into the dark at sight of him, he thinks it all some great joke. He hasn't shared that joke with Hawkins. Hawkins doesn't understand, but surely even Law would not want a straw monstrosity for a bedfellow. He pauses at the thought and sighs. No, if anyone would find it funny to bed a straw monstrosity, it would be Law. 

"Straw and fire, Trafalgar," Hawkins says instead and Law scoffs. 

"That describes your entire ship, _Basil_." 

Hawkins hesitates and the arm on his waist shifts up to his chest, pushes him down far enough for Law to pin him ever so slightly with his weight as well. Law leans over him, and Hawkins' is unable to breathe for reasons that have nothing to do with weight on his ribcage and everything to do with the larger than life entity staring him down with golden eyes. 

Surgeon of death, marine-killer, a terror of the North Blue. A man who wants to watch the world burn, but for some unknowable reason, he stopped by the wayside to stare at a strange man who is nothing to look at. So often in moments like this, so often in the proximity of this man, Hawkins forgets himself. Being with Law makes him forget everything, makes him unable to think, makes him want to say yes to anything Law wants. 

"Use your powers," Law says, and Hawkins does. 

He breathes and his skin comes apart, peeling off in strips like an old sunburn, like a snake, ugly and horrific, the inside not flesh but packed straw, a mix of limp and stiff, altogether an unpleasant, rustling mass. Once he had thought about how far the insides of his body had changed and found he did not like where the thought led. Does a scarecrow have a heart? What is a heart if made of straw?

The tendrils of straw go out, take the matches and light the candles, one, then two, then four, five, twenty, forty-four, sixty-six. Law watches, completely undisturbed, as the straw tendrils withdraw from the lit candles, and keep the matches neatly in the designated drawer. Discomfited, Hawkins snags his cards from the table on the return, and when the straw packs itself back into a human-shaped arm, his cards are in his hand, something to look at as an excuse not to meet Law's eyes. 

Law looks at him for a long while before giving a short, sharp sigh and letting himself fall to the side, lying on his back. 

"It's pointless getting weird about your devil fruit. It's yours, and it's not like you can get away from it. Might as well use it." 

The invalidation and disconnect hits like a physical blow, and the feeling of dread intensifies and does not leave. 

"Perhaps so." Hawkins' lips move to agree even as his blood rustles with disquiet. "By that argument, you might as well let me do a reading for you."

Law rolls his eyes. 

"You know what I think of your psychic bullshit, spooky man." 

Yes, Hawkins knows. He sits up to shuffle the deck absently, casting glances at Law, who returns his looks, seemingly content to just look up at Hawkins as if looking at something wondrous. Hawkins can't bear to meet his gaze long and fixes his eyes on his cards. Law moves to lay across Hawkins legs, much like a cat who insists that the only good sun is on Hawkins' lap. He smirks, altogether too smug, and Hawkins can't help but smile ever so slightly. 

There is no space to lay the cards down, so he places them face-down, one on each side of Law's head, and he moves as if to place one on Law's face. Law bats at him but lets Hawkins place it across his tattooed chest instead. It moves with his breath as he laughs, quiet little exhalations and Hawkins' heart hurts with the tenderness and intimacy of it. He leans over for a brief kiss and Law accepts it readily, tilting his head up to follow as Hawkins pulls away.

 _Please_ , Hawkins begs his cards silently, eyes closed and all too aware of the thudding heart in his chest. _Please let this last. Let there be a future for us. Tell me what to do to keep him without losing myself._

He opens the cards. 

_Lovers, reversed._ Disharmony, imbalance, misalignment of values.

_Ten of Swords, upright._ Painful endings, deep wounds, betrayal, loss, crisis.

Hawkins' breath catches as he flips over the last card.

_Tower, upright._ Sudden change, upheaval, chaos, revelation, awakening. 

No. No, no, no.

Hawkins feels his own body tense, fighting the answer of the cards as he has never done before. The reading of cards is an art, so some vagaries are usual, but there is no ambiguity in this spread. It is an unfavourable reading. 

A very unfavourable reading. 

Of course Law misunderstands the hitch in his breath, his heart speeding up, his nervous swallow. 

"Like what you see?" Law all but purrs, dark-inked hands reaching up, entangling in his hair, the weight of them heavy, pulling Hawkins' head down for another kiss. 

Hawkins resists, and Law frowns. 

"What?" he asks. Hawkins swallows, and though he knows the answer, he wants to ask. What would Law do if he knew they were on the road to certain ruin? Would he find worth in holding on to someone as unremarkable as Hawkins? Or would he let go, throw Hawkins to the wolves and carry on without hesitation? 

If an action is certain to be unfavourable, it is only pragmatic to turn from that path as early as possible, to swiftly cut one's losses. It is sensible. Logical. It is exactly the ruthlessness Law has become known for in their homeland seas. 

Somehow he had known this all along, so he'd always avoided asking. 

"Trafalgar," he whispers. It hurts to see those golden eyes with all their gravity fix on him and see him like he is the centre of the universe for the last time. He will miss that. He will miss this. He already misses this. His body aches with the loss of the man before him. 

"We can't go on like this."

Law tenses, and the languid lines of him sharpen. In an instant, they return to hostilities, even as they both lie in the same bed. 

"Your cards told you that?" he asks, sitting up. The Tower falls from his chest, face down on the bed. It obscures the Lovers card, the one that Hawkins had painted in their likenesses in the early days when Law had first walked into his life and Hawkins had been so taken with him and the thought that someone like Law might deign to choose him. 

"There is nothing I can say to that which you would listen to." Hawkins says and the fire in Law's eyes spits _damn right_ without him saying a word. 

"You should go," says Hawkins, feeling strangely numb, strangely calm, almost like someone else is saying those words, like someone else's body sits in the sheets with Law. He will grieve later, but for now the dread and inevitability leaves no space for anything else. "We are… we should end this. Relationship." 

Law's eyes narrow, search Hawkins' face for something. Whatever he is looking for, he finds it. His hands twist into Hawkins' hair, uncaring of the sharp pull that makes Hawkins' lips part in a pained grimace. He is more teeth than ever as he claims Hawkins' mouth in a kiss, steals the breath from his body, lets Hawkins taste iron and fierce affection one last time. 

They break apart, breathing heavily. 

"Fine," Law says. He pushes Hawkins away, gets up, wears his clothes from where they were strewn on the floor and leaves without looking back. 

Hawkins closes his eyes and gathers his cards back into the deck. His head falls forward, heavy, weary. Later, he will be angry. Later, when they lower the bodies of his crewmates into the unforgiving sea, he will remember the wrongs Law has done him and his, how ill-used he has been, and he will be angry. 

But for now he puts this deck away and lets emptiness bleed into grief. 

  
  


===/END\====

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> hello from rarepair hell i hope you liked it ~~im lonely join me~~. resolution could be more thorough but that meant longer ~~and sexier and angrier~~ but i didn't want to write a 20k hahahaha
> 
> ([twitter](https://twitter.com/codedredalert) /[tumblr](https://codedredalert.tumblr.com/) / [insta](https://www.instagram.com/codedredalert/))  
> 


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